(de)classified & Still Life No. 8

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Edge Residency 2018

Reconcile our pasts and pay deep attention to fleeting action

CounterPulse’s Edge is an incubation residency and commissioning program for contemporary choreographers whose work is deeply curious about the intersection of art practice and social change. This year we present Five Feet Dance’s (de)classified and Simpson/Stulberg Collaborations’s Still Life No. 8.

(de)classified is a multidisciplinary performance of ancestry, culture, and change, honoring the Asian American experiences that our media and documentation of history have overlooked. It is radically created in collaboration with Asian American women rooted in examining their cultural evolution growing up in this country. In order to move forward in this deeply divided time, we reconcile and heal from our pasts.

With a cast from various cultural backgrounds, upbringing, and ages, the company delves into what it means to be Asian American. Looking through the lenses of their own individual experiences bridging what is often two culturally polar worlds. Noticing how they have navigated the two worlds in the past, as well as how they navigate them now, a community and process of support and healing is built.

Still Life No. 8 is a dance for three performers. The eighth work in their Still Life series, it explores ideas of ephemerality and permanence, stillness and action. It features an original set, music and costume design.

Still Life Dances is a series of detailed and intimate movement studies based on early American still life paintings from the de Young Museum’s permanent collection. Using speed, precision, and extreme unison, the dances compel the viewer to pay deep attention to fleeting action. This has resulted in a unique movement vocabulary. Virtuosity is not found in big kicks or sweeping movement, but rather it is present in detailed gestures, complex rhythms, and a deep connection between performers. Simpson/Stulburg Collaborations’ process hinges on strict adherence to compositional rules as well as relying on intuition.